India To Host FAO Meeting On Aquaculture

by
5m Editor

31 August 2006, at 1:00am

INDIA - The 3rd Session of the FAO Sub-Committee of Committee on Fisheries (COFI) is schedule to be held in New Delhi next week. Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution will inaugurate the five-day session on Monday, September 4, 2006.

India To Host FAO Meeting On Aquaculture - INDIA - The 3rd Session of the FAO Sub-Committee of Committee on Fisheries (COFI) is schedule to be held in New Delhi next week. Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution will inaugurate the five-day session on Monday, September 4, 2006.

The Committee of Fisheries is the only global inter-governmental forum where major international fisheries and aquaculture problems and issues are discussed and recommendations made periodically to Government, Regional Fisheries Bodies, NGOs, fish workers FAO and international community. Established in 1965 as a subsidiary body of the FAO Council, COFI has been used as a forum in which global agreements and non-binding instruments are negotiated.

Sub-Committees of COFI are set up on specific issues relating to fish trade and aquaculture. The two Sub-Committees, namely the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade and the Sub Committee on Aquaculture hold meetings in the inter-sessional period of the Committee on Fisheries. The Sub Committee on Aquaculture was established by COFI at its 24th Session held in 2001. India was one of the countries, which strongly advocated constitution of a separate Sub Committee on aquaculture and was closely involved in the formulation of this Sub Committee. Membership to the Sub Committee is open to all Member Nations of FAO, non Members of FAO who are Members of the UN or any of the specialized agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Sub Committee provides a forum for consultation and discussion on aquaculture and advise COFI on technical and policy matters relating to aquaculture and on the work to be undertaken by the organization in the field of aquaculture. The Committee will identify and discuss major issues and trends in global aquaculture development with a view to formulate action for increasing sustainable contribution of aquaculture to food security, economic development and poverty alleviation. The Committee will also suggest international action to address the developmental needs of aquaculture involving the interested organisations and partners. Further, the Committee will recommend measures for strengthening international collaboration to assist developing countries in the implementation of the Code of Conduct For Responsible Fisheries; tender advise on the preparation of technical reviews and on issues and trends of international significance etc.

India had participated in the early two sessions of the COFI Sub Committee on Aquaculture held in Beijing (China) in April 2002 and in Trondheim (Norway) in 2003. Being the host country India will be chairing the five-day Session.